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Ever since the UFC introduced the Women’s Bantamweight division into the promotion back in 2013, female fighters have put on some of the most exciting fights on show. Five years down the line, the UFC has introduced a further three female divisions – Strawweight, Flyweight and Featherweight – and where women fighting used to be a novelty, female fights are now a regular part of every UFC card.
Some women have become recognized as amongst the biggest stars in the MMA world – Ronda Rousey is arguably second only to Conor McGregor in terms of mainstream success, while the likes of Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Holly Holm, Rose Namajunas and Cris Cyborg have also become wildly popular. But which female fighters have been the most successful inside the cage?
The following women have the most wins inside the UFC.
#3= Tecia Torres – 6 wins
A perennial contender at Strawweight since the division was introduced via The Ultimate Fighter 20 in 2014, Tecia Torres is currently on a two-fight losing streak, but still makes this list with 6 UFC victories under her belt.
‘The Tiny Tornado’ was part of the TUF tournament to crown the inaugural UFC champion but was eliminated in the quarter-finals by eventual champion Carla Esparza.
Once she debuted in the UFC proper though, Torres has been pretty great. Her UFC record currently sits at 6-3, with those three losses coming at the hands of current champion Rose Namajunas, former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and current top contender Jessica Andrade. More impressively, she’s never been finished despite facing such tough opposition.
Torres’s biggest win to date was probably her December 2017 victory over ‘The Karate Hottie’ Michelle Waterson – a win that could well have netted her a title shot had it not been for the booking of an immediate rematch between Namajunas and Jedrzejczyk following their initial meeting in November 2017.
Right now her last two losses have derailed her somewhat, but with a well-rounded and consistent attack, she’s probably just one more win away from finding herself back in title contention.
#3= Raquel Pennington – 6 wins
Another fighter who entered the UFC off the back of a stint on The Ultimate Fighter – in this case the 18th season – Raquel Pennington brought a middling record of 3-3 into the world’s biggest promotion, and wasn’t expected to amount to a lot. And sure enough, by going 2-2 in her first four UFC fights, the idea that she was an action fighter but little more seemed accurate.
That all changed in mid-2015, though. After a close loss to Holly Holm in February of that year, something clicked for Pennington and she picked up her third UFC win in a rematch against Jessica Andrade seven months later. From there she reeled off another three wins – including one over former Bantamweight champion Miesha Tate – to earn a title shot.
‘Rocky’ came up short in her effort to claim the Bantamweight title this May when she was TKO’d by champ Amanda Nunes in the fifth round, but with six UFC wins to date she comfortably makes this list. And given her insane toughness and ability to improve her game, only a fool would bet against her picking up more UFC wins in the future.
#3= Alexis Davis – 6 wins
It’s been somewhat of an up-and-down road inside the UFC for Canadian fighter Alexis Davis – she’s had 9 fights inside the Octagon and debuted back in 2013 as one of the first female imports from StrikeForce – making her one of the most tenured women on the UFC roster. However, despite having six UFC wins, it does appear that her best may well be behind her now.
Davis debuted with a clear-cut decision victory over Rosi Sexton at UFC 161 and followed that up with an impressive win over former title challenger Liz Carmouche. A third UFC win in a row – and her fifth overall dating back to her career in Invicta FC – was enough to net her a Bantamweight title shot, but she was absolutely destroyed by Ronda Rousey at UFC 175 in one of Ronda’s most famous victories.
‘Ally-gator’ bounced back with an armbar win over Sarah Kaufman – avenging an earlier career loss – but since then she’s struggled somewhat, scraping past Liz Carmouche in a rematch that took place at Flyweight before losing clearly to rising star Katlyn Chookagian.
At 33 years old she’s probably past her prime now, and so it’s likely she’ll be used in a gatekeeper-type role going forward. To see her pick up at least one or two more wins as a wily veteran wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, however.
#3= Rose Namajunas – 6 wins
The current Strawweight queen, ‘Thug Rose’ had to wait almost a year for her first UFC win after debuting in an unsuccessful title challenge in December 2014 following her run on The Ultimate Fighter 20. But that loss to Carla Esparza remains one of just two UFC losses for Namajunas, and she’s reeled off 6 wins to counteract that.
Her first UFC win came over Angela Hill in October 2015, but the first sign that she had elite potential came when she dominated and finished Paige VanZant two months after that. A July 2016 loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz slowed down her momentum somewhat, but she bounced back to submit Michelle Waterson to gain a title shot and from there, she shocked the world by knocking out Joanna Jedrzejczyk to claim the Strawweight title.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about ‘Thug Rose’s UFC record is the fact that of her 6 victories, 4 of them have come via stoppage. She choked out Hill, VanZant and Waterson, and then knocked out Jedrzejczyk. In fact, the only fights in the UFC that have seen her go the distance were against extremely tough opposition in Tecia Torres – who’s never been finished – and Jedrzejczyk in a rematch.
And at just 26 years old, Rose is probably just about hitting her prime – meaning more UFC wins are likely for her in the future.
#3= Ronda Rousey – 6 wins
She might be gone from the UFC and the world of MMA in general now – she’s currently a fully-fledged WWE superstar who holds the WWE Raw Women’s Championship – but the shadow of Ronda Rousey still looms large over the female fighters in the UFC, particularly over the division she once reigned over with an iron fist – Bantamweight.
Rousey only fought 8 times in the UFC but during that period she made an impact on mainstream culture matched only by Conor McGregor, and she also won her first 6 fights – with none of them going the distance.
Her most impressive run was clearly the period between February 2014 and August 2015 – during this time she beat four top contenders – Sara McMann, Alexis Davis, Cat Zingano and Bethe Correia – with the longest fight going just 1:06.
‘Rowdy Ronda’ saw her career largely go up in smoke following her title loss to Holly Holm in November 2015 – she took over a year off to recover and then came back to challenge Amanda Nunes for the title that many fans saw as still hers, but was TKO’d in just 48 seconds.
Still, the fact that she managed 6 UFC wins in just over 2 years and also drew huge pay-per-view buyrates for her fights means she’ll be remembered fondly by UFC fans for years to come.
#2= Joanna Jedrzejczyk – 9 wins
The most accomplished Strawweight champion in UFC history, Polish striker Joanna Jedrzejczyk currently has 9 UFC wins to her name, with just 2 losses – both to Rose Namajunas – on the other side of her ledger. And with 5 successful title defences, it’ll be hard for any future Strawweight champion to eclipse her run.
‘Joanna Violence’ as she’s sometimes known debuted in the UFC in July 2014 in one of the first Strawweight fights in promotional history. She defeated Juliana Lima by unanimous decision and 5 months later, overcame Claudia Gadelha in a somewhat controversial fight to earn the first shot at inaugural champion Carla Esparza.
As wild as it sounds now, Joanna actually went into the fight with Esparza as an underdog, but that idea was blown away as she destroyed the champion in one of the most one-sided title fights in UFC history. Esparza was TKO’d in the second round, and from there Joanna went on a dominant run – reeling off another 5 wins in impressive fashion, including settling her rivalry with Gadelha.
Her shocking loss to Namajunas – and subsequent loss in the rematch, too – seemed to push her out of title contention, but she’s bounced back since with a win over Tecia Torres, and current rumours have a move to Flyweight in her future.
If she adapts well to the move, not only could she pick up more UFC wins – but she could also find herself the first female fighter to hold UFC titles in two different weight classes, too.
#2= Amanda Nunes – 9 wins
Current Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes sits at joint-second in this list with 9 UFC victories to date. Despite largely failing to establish herself as a major star with the fans, there’s simply no denying that Nunes is an absolutely fantastic fighter – and the fact that she has so many wins and just one loss, to tough contender Cat Zingano, is a testament to her talents.
Nunes reeled off two TKO wins in 2013 to establish herself inside the UFC before falling to Zingano in September 2014. After that though, she went on another tear – finishing veteran Shayna Baszler and former title challenger Sara McMann and then edging Valentina Shevchenko – to net herself a title shot.
Many fans didn’t expect her to get past then-champion Miesha Tate, but instead ‘The Lioness’ proved the doubters wrong by hurting Tate with strikes before submitting her inside the first round. A dominant win over superstar and former champion Ronda Rousey followed, and she’s since made two further title defences over Shevchenko in a rematch and Raquel Pennington.
With a ‘superfight’ against UFC Featherweight champion Cris Cyborg on the horizon, Nunes should have another chance to become a genuine star in the eyes of the fans – especially if she manages to become the first woman to defeat Cyborg since 2005. If she can do that, not only will she tie the most victories in the UFC by any female fighter – but she’ll also become a bonafide legend.
#1 Jessica Andrade – 10 wins
Given that she’s never held a UFC title like Nunes, Jedrzejczyk, Rousey or Namajunas, it comes as somewhat of a surprise to see that Jessica Andrade actually has the most wins by any female fighter in UFC history. But when you take into consideration the fact that she’s been in the promotion since 2013, initially debuted as a Bantamweight, and she’s managed 14 UFC fights in the 5 years that have followed, perhaps it’s less of a shock.
During her initial run as a Bantamweight – where she always looked somewhat undersized – the idea that ‘Bata Estaca’ could develop into an elite fighter seemed a little far-fetched. Dominant wins over the likes of Rosi Sexton and Larissa Pacheco were off-set by disappointing losses to Marion Reneau and Raquel Pennington, and it seemed like her berserker-esque style would simply make her a reliable undercard action fighter.
That changed in 2016, though, when Andrade decided to make the drop to Strawweight, cutting 20lbs in the process. Immediately she destroyed former title challenger Jessica Penne – TKOing her in quicker fashion than then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk could manage – and equally dominant wins over Joanne Calderwood and Angela Hill followed.
A title shot may have come slightly too quickly for her – she was picked apart by Jedrzejczyk at UFC 211 in May 2017 – but she bounced back with massively impressive wins over Claudia Gadelha and Tecia Torres, beating Gadelha in particular in worse fashion than anyone had done previously.
Most recently she stopped former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz – a fighter known previously for her toughness – with a one-punch knockout in the first round at this weekend’s UFC 228, showing knockout power unheard of for a Strawweight fighter.
It now looks likely that Andrade will be granted another title shot in the near future – this time against current champ Rose Namajunas – and if she can land a bomb like the one she dropped on Kowalkiewicz at UFC 228 – she’ll have a UFC title to go with her record-setting 11 wins.
